Australian Flight Data

Port Vila to Sydney

Vanuatu · 474 months of data from Jan 1985 · Sydney to Port Vila

Passengers
29,976
Port Vila to Sydney, 12 months to Jun 2026
Both directions
60,018
including Sydney to Port Vila
Flight time
4h
30m longer than the return
Load factor
76%
seats filled on this leg

Traffic: 12 months to Jun 2026

29,976 passengers flew Port Vila to Sydney in the 12 months to Jun 2026, out of 60,018 on the route in both directions. Flights run about 76% full, much the same in both directions. This route has been reported for 40 years.

Passenger history milestones

Recorded milestones use this city-pair passenger series, with both directions combined. A first positive record is not a service-launch date; complete calendar years require all twelve observed, non-null months.

First positive passenger record
Jan 1985
first recorded month with passengers > 0
Peak complete year
2019
80,967 passengers
Latest complete year
2025
55,116 passengers

The route

Sydney Port Vila

Distances are true from Sydney; the ring marks the distance to Port Vila.

How long is the flight?

Scheduled flight time from Port Vila to Sydney is 4h gate to gate, over 2,481 km. Coming back takes 3h 30m — a difference of 30m, so this direction is the slower one.

Scheduled block time — gate to gate, not time in the air — taken from the current timetable for this leg. Long-haul flights are often timetabled differently in each direction because of winds aloft, so the return is not always the same length. Check your own booking for the flight you are taking.

Flight numbers on this route

1 flight number currently scheduled from Port Vila to Sydney. These are the numbers you book under.

Not a daily service — this week it is scheduled on Mon, Thu and Sat (3 departures).

Jetstar · 1 · Airbus A320

JQ124

Current timetable as at 2026-09-06

Timetables change, and these carry no punctuality figures of their own — no on-time data is published for international flights at all. The passenger and load factor figures above cover the route, not any single flight number.

Passengers, 1985 to 2026

03,3546,707 Jun 2025Dec 2025Jun 2026
03,3546,707Delta lockdowns close the eastern states — Jul 2021 Omicron wave hits crew availability — Jan 2022 Bonza launches on leisure routes — Nov 2023 Bonza collapses after 15 months — Mar 2024 Rex enters administration and exits the trunk routes — Aug 2024 Cyclone Alfred closes south-east Queensland airports — Mar 2025 Jul 2021: 162Jul 2021Jan 2024Jun 2026

Gaps indicate missing observations, not zero values.

04,3038,605Tigerair Australia stops flying — Feb 2020 COVID-19 border closures begin — Mar 2020 The deepest month: domestic traffic falls 96% — Apr 2020 Rex enters the trunk routes with jets — Mar 2021 Delta lockdowns close the eastern states — Jul 2021 Omicron wave hits crew availability — Jan 2022 Bonza launches on leisure routes — Nov 2023 Bonza collapses after 15 months — Mar 2024 Rex enters administration and exits the trunk routes — Aug 2024 Cyclone Alfred closes south-east Queensland airports — Mar 2025 Jul 2021: 162Jun 2016Jun 2021Jun 2026

Gaps indicate missing observations, not zero values.

04,3038,605The pilots' dispute grounds domestic aviation — Aug 1989 Domestic deregulation ends the Two Airline Policy — Oct 1990 Virgin Blue launches — Aug 2000 Ansett Australia collapses — Sep 2001 Jetstar launches — May 2004 OzJet's all-business experiment ends within months — Jan 2006 Tiger Airways Australia enters the market — Apr 2008 Volcanic ash cloud disrupts southern Australia — Jun 2011 Qantas grounds its entire fleet — Oct 2011 Skywest becomes Virgin Australia Regional Airlines — May 2013 Tigerair Australia stops flying — Feb 2020 COVID-19 border closures begin — Mar 2020 The deepest month: domestic traffic falls 96% — Apr 2020 Rex enters the trunk routes with jets — Mar 2021 Delta lockdowns close the eastern states — Jul 2021 Omicron wave hits crew availability — Jan 2022 Bonza launches on leisure routes — Nov 2023 Bonza collapses after 15 months — Mar 2024 Rex enters administration and exits the trunk routes — Aug 2024 Cyclone Alfred closes south-east Queensland airports — Mar 2025 Jul 2021: 162Jan 1985Oct 2005Jun 2026

Gaps indicate missing observations, not zero values.

To Jun 2026 · Marks show industry events

How full were the flights?

Inbound load factor, read as a floor rather than an exact figure. Some flights on this pair also carried passengers to and from other cities, and their seats cannot be split between those journeys. Dividing by every seat on every aircraft that touched the route gives the lowest the true figure can be, so actual occupancy is at or above the line. Seat data begins in 2009, so this series is shorter than the passenger chart above.

62%77%92% Jun 2025Dec 2025Jun 2026
7%49%92% Jul 2021: 92%Jul 2021Jan 2024Jun 2026

Gaps indicate missing observations, not zero values.

7%51%94% Jul 2021: 92%Jun 2016Jun 2021Jun 2026

Gaps indicate missing observations, not zero values.

7%51%94% Sep 2003: 62%Dec 2003: 47%Mar 2004: 57%Jun 2004: 51%Sep 2004: 55%Dec 2004: 41%Mar 2005: 47%Jun 2005: 42%Sep 2005: 63%Jul 2021: 92%Sep 2003Feb 2015Jun 2026

Gaps indicate missing observations, not zero values.

Load factor: seats data from 2009

When is this route busiest?

Average passengers by calendar month over the last ten years, relative to the annual average.

J: 1.09× the annual average J F: 0.55× the annual average F M: 0.63× the annual average M A: 0.82× the annual average A M: 0.77× the annual average M J: 0.93× the annual average J J: 1.35× the annual average J A: 1.13× the annual average A S: 1.21× the annual average S O: 1.32× the annual average O N: 1.10× the annual average N D: 1.09× the annual average D

Freight

Tonnes of air freight carried on this route — a dimension the domestic data does not have at all.

0510 Jun 2025Dec 2025Jun 2026
01021 Jul 2021: 1Jul 2021Jan 2024Jun 2026

Gaps indicate missing observations, not zero values.

01530 Jul 2021: 1Jun 2016Jun 2021Jun 2026

Gaps indicate missing observations, not zero values.

062124 Jul 2021: 1Jan 1985Oct 2005Jun 2026

Gaps indicate missing observations, not zero values.

To Jun 2026

The route in numbers

Busiest month on record8,605 · Jul 2019
Data coverageJan 1985 – Jun 2026 (474 months)
Freight, 12 months to Jun 202664 tonnes
Destination regionVanuatu

No punctuality data is published for international services, so there are no cancellation or on-time figures on this page. That series covers domestic routes only.

Related routes

From Sydney

To Port Vila

Airport data